Cell Phones and missed opportunities

[Umbran]

So, my cell phone got doused in heavy rain this summer, and it has been... quirky ever since. It is over 2 years old, and my cell provider will give me $150 towards the upgrade, so I'm finally getting over inertia and looking at their offerings.

Now, I'm not a Luddite, but I'm not an early adopter of technologies either. Generally, I need to see a very clear use for a tech before I'll buy it. My current phone... is a phone. I use it to make calls. I send a text message maybe once a month, and the camera on the thing hasn't ever been used. Needless to say, I'm not currently paying for a data plan.

As I'm cruising through the listings of available phones that the company will give me for free, I see a couple of things equivalent to my current device, which is cool. But, I look beyond that, to some that have features my phone doesn't - like full qwerty keyboards and the like.

And, lo and behold, there's a smartphone on the list that I can get for no cost to me. I read up a bit, and it is reviewed as a pretty nice entry-level smartphone. Intriguing.

Even more intriguing, the thing can use wifi. So, technically, if I'm using the associated features at home, or at work, or anywhere else where I have access to wifi, I don't need a data plan. For a person who doesn't really feel a strong need for the features, but who wouldn't mind having a neat toy occasionally, this sounds ideal.

Problem: My provider does not allow one to activate a smartphone without paying for the data plan.

While a neat toy is good, I am not paying a premium every month for it. No sale. These guys just lost an opportunity - if they'd have allowed me to use the phone on wifi alone, and gotten me hooked on the functionality, they might have gotten an upsell on my plan with them eventually. But now I am just going to buy a vanilla phone, and they've missed their chance.

So, no toy for me. Maybe in another two years, they'll have a more enlightened stance on plans.

 

[ssampier]

I honestly think the data plan is where the cell phone providers make their money. Since they make so much money off it, they want you permanently attached to that gravy train. Smart Phones are super neat, but I'm not ready to pay for a data plan I would rarely use.

I am such a Luddite I only own a pre-paid cell phone with no contract ATM. I pay a lot for calls ($.25 a minute), but it's only for quick calls and other minor emergencies anyway.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I upgraded my phone earlier this year...and despite my PDA also being terminal, I opted for a simple dumb phone, albeit one with a slide-out keyboard.

And bought myself a top of the line iPod Touch.

No regrets.

 

[Merkuri]

I am such a Luddite I only own a pre-paid cell phone with no contract ATM. I pay a lot for calls ($.25 a minute), but it's only for quick calls and other minor emergencies anyway.

I am a tech junkie, but I use my cell phone so little that I cannot justify getting anything expensive. I've got a $20 phone with a pre-paid plan. I have to put $20 into the account every 3 months to keep it active, and that money just piles up until I use it. I also pay around $.25 a minute for calls, but I use it so little that I've got over $100 stored up in the phone's account.

So either I pay $20 every 3 months for a basic phone or $60+ a month for a smartphone with bells and whistles (plus the cost of the phone itself). The price is really NOT worth it for me, no matter how much I drool over an iPhone.

 

[Janx]

I like my iPhone 3g. The software is nice, and generally works. Not as big a fan of iTunes, but I come from a background of having a multi-drive CD ripping operation and manually drag/dropping .mp3 onto a player via mounting it as a drive.

I don't like having to pay so much for all that I get, but that's the phone company for your. Everything they do is about nickel and diming you.

For instance, texting. I have it blocked on my phone. SMS is scam. I have a dataplan. SMS is passed by FTP. Why the frak do I have to pay seperate for text messages that pass OVER my data plan.

Or why should I have to pay for tethering, which once again passes OVER my data plan. Whether I stream porno on my phone, or zip files to my PC should matter not to the phone company because it's the same data plan.

I don't have a land line. I live in the 21st century. Don't need it, and haven't needed it through 2 hurricanes. I get enough calls that a pay as u go plan won't cut it.

Is the iPhone a luxury? Sure, but I do like the fact that since I am going to always carry a cellphone, I don't have to carry a seperate camera or MP3 player. Which pre-iPhone, I seldom bothered with because of the hassle of pocket space.

I also like the fact that I can facebook, check the news, or even this forum, or play a game when stuck somewhere (like shopping with the wife). I have a PSP that I never use because, like a camera or mp3 player, would be another thing I'd have to carry on me.

I already carry a cell phone. So I might as well carry one that does more stuff when I could use it.

as for all those other smartphones, for the most part, except for Android, and maybe Windows Phone 7, they're still stuck in old phone conpany thinking, that its a phone first. The iPhone basically established that it is a computer that happens to also do phone calls.

One could argue that BlackBerries or older Windows Mobile phones did that, but having owned them, I can tell you, they sucked at it. Heck, the Safari browser on the iPhone is the best browser I've worked with.

Note: I am not a Mac fan. But as a software engineer, I do recognize that the iPhone got a lot more right than any other phone I've seen.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I need my phone to be a phone first- everything else is gravy. I haven't tried any iPhones, but I've generally been displeased with the way Droids handle calling up a phone keypad, searching contacts files and going through call logs. And the buttons on the keyboards on Blackberrys and similar devices are too damn small. Hell, the keypad on my iTouch is barely big enough to be tolerable to me.

 

[Morrus]

Can you not use a smartphone with a pre-pay plan? My wife uses her iPhone and just tops up £10 per month or so if she needs to.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In the USA at least, most major phone companies won't let you use a smartphone with their service without a dataplan. Depending on the length of the contract, that's another $700-1,000. On top of the basic phone service costs.

To me, that's a new gemstone or some precious metal to do a design with; a new guitar to play or amp to play through...or 5 more pedals for my signal chain (cue video of Bill & Ted doing air-guitar)

Simply not worth it when compared to the utility I'm getting for the one-time outlay for my iTouch.

 

[Umbran]

I honestly think the data plan is where the cell phone providers make their money.

This is likely the truth of the matter.

My thought here is that they are being a tad short-sighted, as they are not doing much to lead me into that plan. They had an opportunity to tempt me onto the slippery slope, and missed it.

 

[Morrus]

In the USA at least, most major phone companies won't let you use a smartphone with their service without a dataplan. Depending on the length of the contract, that's another $700-1,000. On top of the basic phone service costs.

That's unfortunate! You could always emigrate to the UK. Solves the problem neatly!